Former Chicago Bull joins Red Bull

Another blue-chip player in Scott Burrell struts his stuff in the PBA as the nine-year NBA veteran, who played 80 games for the 1997-98 champion team Chicago Bulls, suits up with Red Bull Barako versus Sta. Lucia at the Araneta Coliseum today.

Meanwhile, Bonnie Garcia makes his debut as FedEx coach as the Express take on the streaking Barangay Ginebra Kings in the 6:30 p.m. main setto.

In between the two games, Coca-Cola’s Rafi Reavis and Shell’s Tony dela Cruz square off in the opening tiff of the one-on-one revival competition.

But much of the attention could be on Burrell, the Gatorade State Player of the Year in both basketball and baseball as a senior at Connecticut in 1993 who went on to establish a decent career in the NBA. Burrell replaced Rammel Lloyd at Red Bull Barako.

The highlights of Burrell’s NBA career included his stint as one of Michael Jordan’s backups in the 1997-98 Chicago champion team, scoring averages of 11.5 and 13.2 points with the Charlotte Hornets in 1994-95 and 95-96 seasons and a third-place finish in the Three-Point Shootout in the All-Star Game in 1995.

Despite a partially torn right Achilles tendon cutting short his 1994-95 season, Burrell finished tied for third in voting for the Most Improved Player award. His 11.5 points average in that season topped all but seven of the 19 players taken ahead of him in the 1994 Draft.

According to the NBA.com, Burrell is the only athlete ever to be a first-round pick in two different sports. In 1989, he was a first-round pick of the Seattle Mariners in the baseball draft. After graduating at UConn, he was selected by the Hornets with the 20th overall pick in the 1993 NBA draft.

In an outstanding college career, the communications science graduate scored 13.1 points per game over four seasons and made his mark as a defensive specialist. He finished his college stint as the only player in NCAA Division I history to top 1,500 points, 750 rebounds, 275 assists and 300 steals. His total of 310 steals still stands as UConn record.

He averaged 6.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 383 NBA games with career highs of 26 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists.

At 31, not a few believe Burrell is far from over-the-hill.

"Two years ago lang ang last stint niya sa NBA, kaya no question magaling pa rin," said Red Bull Barako team manager Tony Chua.

Chua was impressed with Burrell in practice yesterday afternoon in Green Meadows Gym in Quezon City. Incidentally, the new Thunder import arrived in the country only in the morning.

"Legit NBA player, kaya iba ang galaw," said Chua of Burrell, fresh from a stint with the Atlanta summer camp.